Formac Electronic Inc. today introduced its tevion OS X software. The new TV/video playback and capture application has been built from the ground up for Mac OS X using the Cocoa development environment.
Formac said that tevion responds faster than previously offered software. Because it supports Mac OS X’s protected memory architecture and multitasking environment, the tevion application is crashproof and can be used to capture and play back video and TV seamlessly while running with other applications. A miniature tevion window with live video appears in the dock when the software is launched. Tevion also supports the Aqua interface, of course.
Formac noted that extensive customer feedback has gone into the development of tevion. The software features the ability to view window sizes including small, medium and large, or they can define their own individual aspect ratio by adjusting a scalable window. The video window can be floated above other applications and switching to fullscreen mode activates a separate remote control that enables you to switch channels, adjust volume and record movies.
A new channel assistant enables you to automatically search for and save TV channels. You can browse the automatically created channel list, and then define an individual TV list of selected channels by clicking checkboxes. That produces a final channel list that can be accessed using a pull-down menu. You can even save logos of TV stations for each channel, enabling users to create an easy to remember visual identification for their favorites.
TV and video record is now a one-button operation using tevion; Formac said that the software works in conjunction with hardware in the Formac studio line to grab video in QuickTime DV format at up to 30 frames per second in full NTSC screen resolution.
Formac said that tevion has undergone other interface improvements, including new navigation elements, an intuitive control panel and other changes.
Formac said that tevion would begin shipping with all Formac studio products starting December 3, 2001. If you already own a Formac studio product, you’ll be able to grab tevion from the Formac Web site. It’s a free download.